Sony PlayStation 1

The PlayStation is a game console created by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1994. The release of this console was a huge success; in May 2004, Sony announced that they have already sold over 100 million consoles and over 962 million games. Initially, Sony had allied with Nintendo to create a Nintendo compatible console, for playing Super Nintendo, with the cartridges and also a new CD format that Sony wanted to create.

The creation of this CD, named SNES-CD, would allow Sony to enter the gaming market. A contract was signed to this effect; however, when Nintendo’s president read the original contract of 1988, he noticed that Sony would take possession of any SNES-CD games. Furious, Nintendo secretly canceled all plans of this association with Sony and announced at the CES (largest electronics fair which still exists today) that it was now in partnership with Philips. After the collapse of the project with Nintendo, Sony was thinking of cancelling the projet, but they finally decided to reuse all that had been jointly developed to create a full-fleged console. As a result, Nintendo sues Sony in the Federal court of the United States, alleging contract breach and requesting the judge to prohibit Playstation’s commercialization. The federal judge refused to ban the production.

The PlayStation did not use cartridges, but it uses CDs instead. This allowed to increase its data capacity and to also show remarkable quality videos, as remarkable as the best PCs of the time! A real turning point in the history of video games has been scored, the 3D accessible to all with a realism never achieved before. Realism is attracting more and more players and Sony takes full advantage of this craze. With big competitors like Nintendo and Sega, Sony managed to gradually demarcate itself by an impressive number of varied games. There are about 8000 games on the PlayStation.